Other planets : the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen / Robin Maconie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maconie, Robin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 1928-2007--Criticism and interpretation.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz.

Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 1928-2007.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

x, 577 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2005.

Summary:

German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen is arguably the greatest living composer and unquestionably the most elusive and enigmatic musical thinker of a generation that includes Pierre Boulez, John Cage, and Luciano Berio. His radically new electronic and instrumental music converted Igor Stravinsky to serialism in the 1950s and has continued to inspire composers for more than fifty years.

Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen draws on more than forty years of the author's close study of Stockhausen and the sources of his inspiration, while functioning as a catalogue raisonne of Stockhausen's complete output. Maconie wisely avoids technical analysis, focusing instead on the music's aesthetic and practical assumptions. With plentiful citations from the history of radio, film, sound recording, and contemporary science and technology, this book is organized chronologically and contains ample commentary on the composer's sources of inspiration. Each composition is treated on its own terms and also as a piece in a larger puzzle, embracing surrealist art and literature, as well as music. Each composition is fully documented within the text, providing publisher, catalogue number, instrumentation, duration, and authorized compact disc.

Any listener who has been intrigued by Stockhausen's music over the past half-century will benefit from this work, and American readers in particular will find it an invaluable guide in the ongoing debate and rivalry over the sources of abstract expressionism and the avant-garde.

Contents:

Introduction: On Telling the Truth 1

1 Formation 13

2 Early Works 31

3 Polarities 49

4 Rhythmic Cells 69

5 Music on Tape 93

6 Watching Time 109

7 Meyer-Eppler 125

8 Temperaments 139

9 Aleatory 157

10 Revolution 173

11 Contacts 193

12 Theater 211

13 Uncertainty 227

14 Process 249

15 Anthems 271

17 White Space 307

18 Findings 327

19 Rites 347

20 Stagecraft 365

21 Allegories 387

22 Mysterium 403

23 Donnerstag 421

24 Samstag 439

25 Montag 459

26 Dienstag 477

27 Freitag 491

28 Mittwoch 507

29 Sonntag 527.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [545]-556) and index.

ISBN:

0810853566

OCLC:

56942136